Spy Report Complicates U.n.'s Work

March 07, 1999|The Morning Call

When Saddam Hussein accused American weapons inspector Scott Ritter in January 1998 of being a spy, U.S. officials flatly denied it. Now it turns out there was some basis to the Iraqi dictator's fears that UNSCOM was a vehicle for U.S. spying, though Mr. Ritter's role isn't clearly implicated.

A report surfaced last week in The Washington Post that the United States used United

Nations cover to conduct a secret, Americans-only spying operation on Iraq's military communications. For more than three years U.S. agents used the U.N. Special Commission, better known as UNSCOM, to spy on Iraqi military activities. The Post reported that Americans secretly wired a U.N. microwave transmission system so Washington could monitor secret Iraqi military communications.

A certain degree of spying on foreign soil is to be expected. But neither U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan nor UNSCOM's executive chairman, Richard Butler, were in the know. Now Mr. Annan is justified in being concerned about the manipulation of the U.N. weapons inspection program. Ultimately, using UNSCOM as cover to spy -- a piggybacking operation not primarily focused, as was UNSCOM, on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -- harms the cause of disarmament. Suspicious governments could refuse to cooperate with U.N. surveillance of arms programs.

Mr. Hussein had defiantly interfered with UNSCOM's effort to root out nuclear, biological and chemical weapons about a dozen times since the close of the war in the Persian Gulf, though the inspections were a condition of the conflict's resolution. The Iraqi dictator was warned in November that failure to comply with the U.N. inspectors would result in swift military action; four days of bombing followed in December. Both the UNSCOM effort and the spying ended when Iraq cut off inspections after the American and British bombing. A workable substitute for U.N. inspections hasn't surfaced yet.

The U.S. led the coalition that drove the Iraqis from Kuwait and has been at the forefront of peacekeeping and monitoring activities in the region since. However, UNSCOM reports to the 15-nation Security Council. The five permanent members of the Council are deadlocked in how to handle Iraq now. The U.S. and Britain demand a continued hard line; Russia, France and China want more flexibility.

The timing of the report of U.S. spying in Iraq is highly unfortunate because it further complicates this already difficult situation by raising the question of whether national intelligence services have penetrated other U.N. agencies. News of American spying in Iraq compromises the U.N.'s independent reputation. Ultimately, it will be more difficult to stop the spread of prohibited weapons, not only in Iraq but worldwide.